Silver Bay Seafoods (SBS) is an integrated processor of frozen salmon, herring and crab that supplies product to re-processors across three continents. SBS needed a system to help manage assets and parts, support automatic reordering, generate purchase orders and more. SBS selected eMaint, and set up a comprehensive inventory management program that tracks transactions and costs for over 10,000 parts. Benefits included Periodic Cycle Count reports to simplify audits and improve inventory accuracy, and a seamless feed of purchase orders into SBS’s accounting software.

BACKGROUND

Silver Bay Seafoods (SBS) is an integrated processor of frozen salmon, herring and crab that supplies product to re-processors throughout Asia, Europe, Russia and North America. SBS, founded in 2007, maintains three plants on the remote islands of Sitka, Craig and Valdez, Alaska. Fifty maintenance employees work year round to prepare for the extreme fishing season from June through August. Among them is Adam Aday, Purchasing Manager at the Sitka plant. Adam manages over $1.2MM in inventory to support company-built assets including freezers, processing equipment, fileting machines, and construction materials.

THE CHALLENGE

A short production season and remote locations pose numerous challenges for the maintenance and operations staff. Most production equipment is designed and manufactured in-house, and receiving parts is a lengthy and expensive process. In season, a day of downtime can result in a loss of 800 tons of fish with an ex-vessel value of over half a million dollars. So, it is vital that each plant has the parts they need when they need them. Adam needed a system that could help manage assets and parts, support automatic reordering, generate purchase orders and feed directly into their accounting software. In addition, scheduled Work Orders and Preventive Maintenance help the plants ramp up for the next season during idle periods.

IMPLEMENTATION

Silver Bay Seafoods selected eMaint CMMS shortly after the company was formed. eMaint was chosen because of its configurability, comprehensive feature set, web-based platform and favorable pricing for the value delivered. Adam, with the help of eMaint’s Professional Services team, set up a comprehensive inventory management program that tracks transactions and costs for over 10,000 parts and generates barcode labels, allowing parts to be issued and received with a barcode scanner. A web-based system supports sharing inventory across the three plants by attaching reference codes on each item. Utilizing eMaint University’s learning portal ensures consistent training and processes are carried out, in spite of an annual employee turnover rate of 50%. Detailed schematics and diagrams for electrical panels on their in-house manufactured equipment are linked to each asset in eMaint, providing documentation needed for Underwriters Laboratory approvals.

Linking detailed schematics and diagrams to assets in eMaint supports UL approval for in- house built electrical panels.

“There are many ways to utilize eMaint, and it is very easy to tailor it to meet your needs. In our case, it has evolved into a strong inventory, purchasing and document management system to maintain assets that are vital to meeting the demands of seasonal production.”

Adam A., Purchasing Manager, Silver Bay Seafoods

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